Hi and welcome to my review of Worldwide Brands.
When it comes to finding a legitimate wholesale supplier directory, Worldwide brands are always near the top of the list.
Starting an eCommerce business is one of the best ways to make money online, the world of eCommerce is growing at an exponential rate and this growth provides ample opportunities for entrepreneurs to start an online business.
A few years back, one of the main stumbling blocks to starting an eCommerce business was finding legitimate wholesale suppliers for the products you want to sell.
In the early days of the eCommerce boom, anyone who wanted to start an online store found it very hard to locate wholesale suppliers on the internet. Most of the sites you found through a simple search were either dodgy middleman or outright scams. Back then most wholesalers didn’t have functioning websites and those that did, didn’t know how to market their websites properly.
This was the reason why Worldwide Brands was developed, so that people could get access to a database of legitimate wholesale suppliers without worrying about whether the information was correct or not.
Worldwide Brands Review
This is an updated review of Worldwide brands for 2020 and my article will mention any significant changes that have been made to this wholesale/dropshipping directory.
Before I get to the actual review of Worldwide Brands, I want to be very transparent, I usually try and purchase the product I want to review. However, Worldwide Brands was a little out of my budget, costing nearly $300 (for lifetime access). Unfortunately, there was no free trial or a monthly payment plan, however, they do let you have a free preview of the member’s area which I am basing my review on.
I also did extensive research on what other reviewers were saying and took in their thoughts when I wrote this review.
However, I do advise you to do your own research before you decide whether you want to invest in Worldwide Brands or not.
Although the free preview did give me access to its core product, which is its wholesale supplier directory, I did not get access to its market research tool, which I believe will have been just as useful as the directory.
Unfortunately, none of the other Worldwide Brands review elaborate much on the market research tool, so I cannot give my thoughts on this tool. Even the Worldwide Brands website has little information on their market research tool, which is unfortunate because their main competitor, which I believe is Salehoo, has a market research tool called Salehoo Labs and they have lots of material on how this tool works and what it does and it is a very useful tool that can help you identify profitable products to sell online.
Worldwide Brands Founder
The founder of Worldwide Brands is Chris Malta, he is a serial entrepreneur having run many successful online businesses’ in both eCommerce and affiliate marketing. He has over 25 years of business building experience and started Worldwide Brands because he saw how hard it was to find real wholesale supplier information especially on the internet. If you would like to find out more about Chris Malt and his other business ventures, check out his website here.
Worldwide Brands Members Area
The core product of Worldwide Brands is its wholesale supplier directory, it is updated regularly and currently has over 8000 wholesale suppliers and over 16 million products in their database.
I’ll be honest, the UI isn’t the most user friendly, although it’s gone through an update, it still looks like something from the early 2010, but that is just my personal opinion, others may prefer the way the membership area is laid out.
At the top is a search bar, here you can search for products by their brand name or by the type of product you are looking to sell.
There is also a small drop-down menu which gives you options to choose what type of supplier you are looking for. These include suppliers who only deal in bulk orders, wholesale suppliers who dropship and allow for light bulk orders and liquidators.
There is also an option for a quick market analysis for your chosen product, but since I don’t have full access to Worldwide brands, I cannot say what kind of data they provide for this analysis.
When you search for a product either through its brand name or type, you will get a list of wholesale suppliers for that product. You can view the results in a grid format (which I prefer) or a list format.
When you click on the supplier details tab, a popup box appears, and you get a lot of details about that supplier including things like;
- Supplier Name
- Website
- Full Contact Details (Phone No., email address and Name of Account Manager)
- Shipping Methods
- Shipping Regions
- How ordering is processed
- The Brand names they sell
- Type of products
- If they dropship
- Minimum order amount
If you like what you see and want to work with a supplier, you can easily send a message to that supplier through the Worldwide Brands members area.
One thing I must note here is that there are four videos where the owner of Worldwide brands advises you how to use this directory so that you get full benefits from it.
One thing he mentions is that sometimes suppliers will not respond to emails and other forms of online messages this is because of various reasons but mostly a lot of suppliers just don’t respond to online communications. So, he advises people to get on the phone and talk to the supplier if you really want to work with them. He also mentions that to have a good chance of opening a wholesale account with many of these suppliers, you should register yourself as a real business-like setting up an LLC and getting a Tax ID.
You can also filter your search results by location of the supplier, if they allow you to sell on Amazon and eBay and the type of supplier you are looking for.
By numbers alone, Worldwide Brands has one of the largest if not the largest wholesale supplier database on the internet.
It is tough to find legitimate wholesalers of branded products (although it is easier now than it was a few years ago) and this is where Worldwide Brands really shines. All the suppliers on their database have been thoroughly vetted and they are continually adding more on a regular basis.
Running an eCommerce business will require to have access to legitimate wholesale suppliers, especially if you want to sell branded products. With Worldwide Brands, you can be confident that suppliers in their database are all licensed to sell some of the biggest brand names and that you are really getting wholesale prices and not working with middlemen where prices will be inflated.
Worldwide Brands Market Research
Unfortunately, this was one tool I would have really liked access to, even limited free access would have been helpful, however, it’s only for paying members and I cannot really say whether it is any good or not.
There is also no demonstration of any on the website and no articles explaining what it does and how it can help you.
This is in stark contrast to Salehoo, which is Worldwide Brands main competitor, they have market research tool called Salehoo Labs and it is a very useful tool that will allow you to analyse the best selling products on Amazon and eBay and give you useful data and what will sell best for your online store.
Other Resources
Worldwide Brands provides useful articles on all aspects of eCommerce, however, their main resource centre is also behind a paywall, again I have to compare this to Salehoo, which provides tons of free resources all for free and this includes their very active and useful eCommerce forum.
Worldwide Brands Vs SaleHoo
I have already mentioned SaleHoo a few times in this review, they are one of Worldwide Brands main competitors and provide a very similar service.
They too have a very large wholesale supplier database consisting of over 8000 verified suppliers from around the world and over 2 million products. However, I personally prefer SaleHoo for a couple of reasons.
First of all ,and this is my main reason, SaleHoo is much cheaper and I believe provide better value for money. They have two payment options, one is an annual fee which costs just $67 and has a 60-day money-back guarantee and the other is a one-time lifetime fee of $127.
When compared to how much Worldwide Brands cost, SaleHoo is a bargain.
Some of the other reasons I prefer SaleHoo is that their website is more modern and very easy to navigate. There is a very active eCommerce forum that is free to sign up where you can go and seek help from successful entrepreneurs and also network with other like-minded people. The free resources are of higher quality that what Worldwide Brands provides and one of SaleHoo’s best features is its market research tool called SaleHoo labs where they analyse thousands of products and provide you with data about what kind of products you should consider selling online. Worldwide Brands has a similar tool but there is hardly any information about it and not even a free demonstration on how it works and what it does.
Final Thoughts
Worldwide Brands is a legitimate wholesale directory that will give you access to thousands of suppliers and millions of branded products. It is one of the longest-running wholesale supplier directories on the internet and continually adds to its massive supplier database.
Although the members area is easy to navigate and was apparently recent updated, it still looks a little bit outdated, especially when you compare it to its rival, Salehoo, which has a clean and mobile responsive website.
However, that should not be a hindrance to the service that Worldwide Brands provides, which is one of the largest and thoroughly vetted wholesale supplier databases you will find online.
The only real issue is its price, which is expensive when compared to its competitors, however, it is only a one time fee and you get access for life including all updates. If you are serious about starting an eCommerce business, having access to a wholesale directory will save you a lot of time and headache and will be a good investment for your business.